Dweezil Zappa, eldest son of musical iconoclast Frank Zappa, has been keeping his father's work alive by touring as "Zappa Plays Zappa." Or at least, he has been until a family fallout has made it impossible for him to use that name. Dweezil has embarked on a fairly public skirmish with younger siblings Diva and Ahmet who control 60% of the Zappa Family Trust. Dweezil and his older sister Moon, each own 20%. Presumably matriarch Gail Zappa knew exactly what kind of situation she was creating when she wrote her will dividing things up this way and leaving youngest son Ahmet in charge. While every family is dysfunctional in their own way, lets just say the Zappa family seems to have some special dynamics.

Mostly I wouldn't care less about some children-of-stars squabble except at the point where it starts to impact the actual shows that are being performed. There's no likeness of Frank Zappa anywhere on stage or in any of the merchandise or promotional materials. In fact the tour has been renamed the "Dweezil Zappa plays whatever the f@%k he wants." Except, that's not exactly true either. But I'll come back to that point momentarily.

The show began on a strong note with several songs from the first "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention" album "Freak Out!" which was released 50 years ago this year. Songs ranged from the phrenetic "Help, I'm A Rock!" to the soulful "Doreen" to more musically adventurous songs like "The Illinois Enema Bandit" and "Eat That Question." Indeed, it was the vast instrumental breaks with Dweezil's soaring guitar parts that got the fans up on their feet cheering. Of course, there were also some songs of questionable taste "Shove It Right In" and the jaunty "Catholic Girls" but taste is in the ear of the beholder.

A lot of Zappa songs are laden with key and tempo changes that go way beyond rock and lean more heavily towards avant-garde jazz and that was certainly true with songs like "Five Five Five."

Presumably to show that Dweezil Zappa's tour was not just capitalizing on the music or fame of his father, the second part of the show included a medley of '80s songs. Sure that's kind of cool. And these songs were played with great musicianship despite the fast chord, tempo and key changes. After going through snippets of a dozen songs in under 4 minutes ("Tom Sawyer", "Spirit of Radio", " Another One Bites The Dust", "Under Pressure", "Billie Jean", "Like a Virgin", "Jack & Diane", " I want Candy", "Walking on Sunshine", "Stray Cat Strut", the novelty wore off.

Yet the '80s snippets continued on with short bursts from: "Lady", "I Just Called To Say I Love You", "9 to 5", "Get Physical", "Xanadu", "Don't You Want Me Baby..."

I counted over 75 songs. All brilliantly played. But other than the musical showmanship of being able to play these short signature licks without ever losing the beat, it became mind-numbing tedium.

So where was I?

Oh yes, the audience was there to hear the music of Frank Zappa. Not an '80s K-Tel commercial.

After a brief pause, the band came back and played "You Are What You Is" and "Keep it Greasy".

Again, I have to commend the band for an incredible performance of extremely complex music. They are superb musicians and Dweezil is an exceptionally talented guitarist and band leader. It was an excellent show even for casual fans.

And I appreciate that Dweezil is in the difficult position of being unable to use his own family name without a license from the Zappa Family Trust (of which he is a beneficiary.) While everyone in the family is saying they want to preserve Frank Zappa's legacy, Dweezil is out there keeping it alive while the Zappa Family Trust are singing a different tune.

Eighties rocker Billy Idol stepped on the main stage at the Traverse City Cherry Festival Sunday evening for what was mostly a great concert. The Cherry Festival, like any typical summer state fair, attracts it's share of oldies bands, but Billy Idol kicked things off with a 100db rendition of "Shock to the System" followed by a newer song "Can't Break Me Down" from the vastly underrated "Kings and Queens of the Underground." They covered all the usual hits: "Eyes Without a Face," "Daytime Drama," as well as an old Gen-X song "King Rocker." Despite years of decadance on the road, at 60, Idol still looks the part of the buffed-out punk rocker running around on stage with an excess of energy.

There were some excellent over-the-top guitar solos from super shredder Steve Stevens that went from Flamenco to Yes' "Roundabout" along with some tasty Led Zeppelin licks from "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "Stairway to Heaven."

The concert took a bit of a wrong turn when they embarked on Idol's biggest hit "Rebel Yell." Idol was singing very off-key and eventually stopped the song mid-verse and started over again. The second version still wasn't perfect and Idol left a lot of the singing to the crowd.

This is a song they've played in every single gig for the last two years, so I can't help but wonder what was going wrong with the sound on stage to cause such a screw up. At the end, the band dashed off stage for a few minutes, presumably figuring out how to get things back on track.

Stevens and Idol came back for a slightly shaky acoustic version of "White Wedding" before the band came on for the full-on rock version. This was followed by a drum solo and a lengthy version of the classic "Mony, Mony."

Coming in at about 90 minutes, it seemed to me they cut the show a bit short, with only one song from the new album. Maybe that was because of the shaky vocals. Or maybe they just wanted to get off stage and get some elephant ears from the food stands.

Here's a couple of videos from the show including some Steve Stevens guitar pyrotechnics...

I'll try to post some more videos from the show later on.

Opening act Civil Twilight from South Africa did an admirable job trying to entertain a crowd of aging boomers doing their best not to go blind from staring into the setting sun. The band played as a trio, with brothers McKellar on bass and guitar and fellow countryman Richard Wouters on drums.

The band delivered a mix of song ranging in style from U2 to Peter Gabriel with a bit of Paul Simon "Graceland" polyrhythmic vibe. Highlights of their set included a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" and their final song, a lively upbeat number called "When Am I Going to See You Again?" They are definitely be worth catching on their own US tour later this summer.

I was able to corner indie musician Mike Marlin between sets at Wilbert's in Cleveland in order to find more about his musical career, opening for The Stranglers and how he writes songs. He's a much more upbeat and friendly guy than his foreboding lyrics and baritone voice might lead you to believe...

Q. Tell me about this tour. Is this the first time you're in the US?

We're doing the mixed-bag American tour. We're doing some support gigs for big bands, we're stopping at some roadhouses along the way for a random experiences. And I would say this is a random Cleveland experience, in a good way. Great place, good vibes. Then we're doing a really cool venue in New York. A full-on Marlin experience. That's the whole point of coming to America on tour.

I played in Chicago a few years back, supporting The Stranglers. I was supposed to do the whole tour. But the visas did not come through. Unbelievable. The whole things was a car crash. Even the Stranglers had problems. That's actually how the trio was formed. My bass player and drummer couldn't get visas. So only the keyboard player, guitarist and myself were able to travel. So we did two rehearsals, got on a plane, came to Chicago and played support for The Stranglers. We walked into a giant, sold out venue. I thought to myself "We're supporting The Stranglers as a trio, no bass no drums. This isn't going to work." But it did.

Q. How did you update the songs to work as a trio?

Well, the interesting thing for me is if you take the bass and drums out, you have a lot more space to play with. So instead of going folky we've filled that space. Paul is on keys, Kim is on guitar. Kim's got an amazing way of working with guitar pedals. He's definitely a guitar vibes guy! The first set we played tonight, we kept to conventional guitar sounds. But a lot of stuff we play you wouldn't even know it's guitar. My guitar always sounds like a guitar, but Kim's goes off into another place. So it's more like having a synth player. And then Paul is also an amazing musician. He's also a great sax player.

Q. What was it like opening for The Stranglers?

It's great. I saw The Stranglers as a kid at the Hope and Anchor in 1977 with twelve other people. And then twenty-five years later, I'm supporting them. If anyone had said this was going to happen, I would have said it's impossible. The second thing I love about The Stranglers is that they are serious musicians. They're not just a punk band that did a few things. They've made seventeen albums. Secretly, they're actually a jazz band. No really.

They're like the Doors, a jazz band who happened to have a poet as a lead singer. What I mean is, they're deeply serious about the music they do. Trust me.

Q. How did you connect with The Stranglers?

It was one of these bizarre things. From the age of 22 to 48 I had no ambitions to be a musician. But I wrote songs. I made my first record because I had sold my technology business. I was writing a novel. And randomly I made a record. While I was in the recording studio, absolutely finding my feet, like a 48 year-old kid who had no idea what I was doing. I made a cover of "Staying alive" by the BeeGees. And it was so weird that it got played on the radio. And quite a well-known agent heard it. And he got in contact with me. I sent him the album and he loved it. And he rang up and said "Do you need an agent?" Next thing I know, he got me this great gig supporting The Stranglers.

At that point I had no band. I had never sung a song for another human being, ever. I'd played in bands when I was younger, but I stood in the back and played bass. So it was an amazing thing. Really, a chance in a million. That does not happen! So I nearly said no.

Q. How could you say no to The Stranglers?

Exactly! But, I was really scared. So I put a band together. I was very lucky. I had about three months to rehearse. The first gig was at the Hammersmith Apollo, sold out. Before that gig, I went out and supported Bruce Foxton's "From The Jam" as sort of a tryout. I was absolutely terrified.

Then I went on The Stranglers tour, walked out on stage, in Hammersmith at a sold-out venue where I'd been to see everybody from The Police to The Undertones to Siouxie and the Banshees back in the day. And I thought "what am I doing here?"

But I think, for whatever reason, it resonated with The Stranglers fans. So I ended up doing four tours with them. I hold the record incidentally. I played ninety gigs. And it could go up!

They're lovely people. Very committed to what they do, in a good way. So, that was the start of it. That was a complete left turn in my life. I thought, "well hold on a minute. I'm not just going to make one album. I've got to make another one." Now I've made four.

Q. What were your musical influences?

Originally, I was deeply unfashionable as a kid. I was massively into American music. The trouble was a lot of these bands became uncool. I was hugely into Bruce Springsteen, Graham Parsons, Neil Young, the first three Eagles albums. I stood completely separate from my peers.

Musically, I was somewhere on the west coast of the US, but living in the suburbs of London. Which is why coming to America for me is so musically significant. Because those are my roots. I was a massive Tom Petty fan. Also a big U2 fan.

Q. Lets switch gears. Tell me about how you write your songs

This is going to sound unlikely, but songs come to me pretty much complete. When I say complete, I mean there's a verse, a chorus, and I'll record stuff on my iPhone. It may come as a turn of phrase. Perhaps a riff over a change of chords. It'll be a little thing. And as soon as I hear it, pretty quickly I'll have most of the song.

In my view, what makes a song great is not trying to make everything great, but it's about knowing what is great. Take a song like "Grand Reveal." It's all about the first two lines in the chorus. And as soon as I had those two lines, I had a hundred percent confidence I had a song. "I'm older than I look, I'm younger than I feel." At that point, i think I've got something. And after that it's just finding the thing that makes that hook. For me, a song turns on a lyric, a phrase and the way it drops.

That song was about how I've always wanted to feel. When you're older and more mature, you're supposed to know which way is up. But you don't. No matter how old you are, no matter how much you've seen and where you've been, when you walk into a room full of strangers, it's still like the first day of school. Every day of your life is like the first day of high school. So get over it.

I always write on guitar. Very occasionally on the piano. But you don't want to hear my piano playing. The guitar is my instrument of choice. In my mind's ear, I can always hear the arrangement, the strings or other parts. "The Secret of My Success" is a fully orchestrated record with intricate musical interludes, which I absolutely love creating.

What I love about records is making them. Then I love playing them. But once it's made I don't refer to my own records. What I bring on stage is the songs, not the record, if that makes sense. What's interesting about the MeloManiacs is it's just the three of us. And the record is impossible to play with only three people. But because of how the songs were written, they are just as true with that lineup as with the full orchestrated band on the record.

For me it's all about the songs, and the experience of communicating the songs to people I've never met. So much of life is, certainly in the technology world, is about connection. So the songs are an incredibly powerful way of expressing one's self and seeing if it resonates. I don't think anything else can do that in the same way as music. If you write a book you're not there when the person reads it. When you write code for a computer program, the better it is, the less the person using it thinks about the person who created it.

When I open for the Stranglers there are thousands of people there. And there may be two hundred people for whom my music resonates. As a songwriter you can create something where there was nothing. I write songs and play them for other people because I need to. And I'm amazed when anyone else connects. That's what I love.

Check out Mike Marlin's latest album The Secret of My Success and watch for updates on additional tour dates later this year. If you missed the US tour, I've got some videos posted from the Cleveland gig.

Next weekend musical instruments mega retailer Sweetwater is holding their annual Gearfest event. If you've got GAS (Gear acquisition syndrome) this could be the perfect therapy for getting the latest demos and buying some new equipment at good prices. There are dozens of free workshops Friday and Saturday covering a range of topics and vendors. Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater will be demonstrating the innovative Roli Rise midi controller. There are plenty of sessions recording, guitar tone, vocal recording, mixing, mastering as well as sessions on products from Fender, Marshall, Vox, Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Pro Tools, Ableton, Reason, Line 6, TC Electronics, Boss, Kala, Taylor, Ovation, and many others.

Additionally, there are also some longer "amplified" half-day and full-day sessions on Thursday covering topics like songwriting, recording, synthesizers and more. Prices for those amplified sessions are a very reasonable $39-59.

It's a bit of a drive to Fort Wayne for me, but I'm going to head over Thursday evening and check out some of the sessions on Friday. Hopefully I can catch some live music that evening.

Indie rocker Mike Marlin is on tour with his band the MeloManiacs hitting the midwest and eastern US for a couple of weeks to promote the new album "The Secret of My Success." They'll be in Chicago, Wisconsin, Cleveland, New York, DC, Cambridge and Connecticut. Definitely worth catching live if they're in your area. Last time Mike and crew were slated to tour the US was with the Stranglers in 2013, and sadly they weren't able to make the gigs happen.

The new album is an excellent, if sombre, follow up to the 2012 release "Grand Reveal." There are a lot of interesting influences and comparisons here with Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, U2 and various and sundry '70s classic rock.

Update:

I managed to catch the band in Cleveland earlier this week at a club called Wilbert's. Despite the rather drunken crowd of baseball fans, it was an excellent gig. The first set was basically a sound check before the game. The second set, after the game, was excellent including songs from the new album, as well as older songs "Grand Reveal," "The Magician" and an impromptu version of The Beatles' "Come Together." The MeloManiacs are playing as a trio with Mike Marlin on rhythm guitar, Kim Murray playing fantastic lead guitar and Paul Silver rounding things out on keyboards and backing vocals. This a great trio and it gives the songs a more laid back vibe. Still, I would have loved to have had the full band with drums and bass tackling songs like "Skull Beneath the Skin" or "The Murderer." Hopefully there will be another tour in the future.

I shot some video which I've posted below and will follow up with a Q&A interview with the man himself next week.

I managed to catch Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band live this week at The Palace at Auburn Hills, Michigan. I'm not the biggest Springsteen fan, but I have friends who have been telling me for years about his epic live shows. If you've never been, it is definitely a revival experience.

His current2016 tour commemorates the 35th anniversary of his 1980 double album "The River." (Interesting historical fact, the original River tour began in October 1980 at Crisler Arena in nearby Ann Arbor.)

For Springsteen fans, this was definitely a homecoming concert. Springsteen and the latest incarnation of the E Street Band play the entire double album, and then proceed into a lengthy repertoire of hits: "Bad Lands," "Promised Land," "Rosalita," "Dancing in the Dark," "Because the Night," "Born In The USA," and even the old Isley Brothers song "Shout" with Bob Seger joining the band on stage. (Further historical fact, Seger joined Springsteen on stage at Crisler Stadium back in 1980 to sing "Thunder Road.")

For a man who has crossed the 65 year mark, Springsteen has a remarkable amount of energy. This was a three and a half hour all-out high-energy show, with no breaks. Springsteen is certainly not phoning it in. He was out in the audience, crowd surfing, and getting the audience up on their feet. The band is impeccable with Max Weinberg's powerful drumming, Steven Van Zandt on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Nils Lofgren on lead guitar, and Jake Clemons stepping in for his uncle, the late, great Clarence Clemons.

Die hard fans seemed to know the words to every song, even the deep cuts off The River that never got much airplay. The audience was a sea of old people reliving their youth, dancing to the music and enjoying the vibe. When Springsteen and band are giving it their all up on stage, it's hard not to appreciate their energy and enthusiasm.

As a guitar player, it's fairly rare that I delve into the world of synthesizers, drum pads and other assorted electronic gear. But the Novation Circuit, might just be the kind of instrument that gets even the casual musician to bust out some new moves. My buddy Michael is a bass player and synth addict and he loves it.

Novation is probably most famous for its BassStation and MiniNova line of synths as well as its LaunchPad of MIDI controller grids. The Circuit combines the best of both these traditions to create an all-in-one music making machine. It's got drums, bass, synths, a simple step sequencer, runs on batteries, and has a built-in speaker. It's ready to use right out of the box. No need to fire up your laptop. No cables or MIDI to mess with. Just dive in and start making music.

While many users will use the Circuit to crank out EDM dance beats, it's got the chops to be used for rock, metal. I'm not sure it's going have the right style for Jazz and Blues, but who knows? Here are a couple of tunes Michael published on SoundCloud.

For around $300, the circuit is not exactly an impulse buy. But it's capabilities, rugged construction and technicolor good looks put it well beyond the novelty category. No wonder it's winning awards and rave reviews.

You can export your creations, but the process for bringing separate tracks into Logic Pro or other DAWs looks to be a bit cumbersome. Novation has already released a firmware upgrade and a synth patch editor. Hopefully exports will be made easier with some further update. This looks like it could be a lot of fun both for recording and for live performance.

Here's a video Novation put together demonstrating some of its capabilities.

Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, has resumed his daily rock and roll radio show Jonesy's Jukebox, now hosted at KLOS. The show is noon daily for two hours and is available for streaming and podcast. Sadly, the podcast version omits all the music. Not sure who came up with that.

It's a good show and the music is interesting and off-beat. Jones has interviewed a number of other rock and rollers for the show including Billy Idol, Anthony Kiedis, Robert Plant, Joe Walsh, Ian Astbury and Fred Armisen to name a few.

With those memorable words, Johnny Rotten ended the final Sex Pistols concert at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in January 1978. Rotten parted company with the band, though they released a few other singles without him as well as the miserable Julian Temple film "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle."

Although most reports from this era say they weren't playing very well, concert footage from Winterland and bootlegalbums, tell a different story. Yes, there are times when the band appears to just want to get things over with --particularly on "No Fun," the Stooges song that served as an encore. The vocals are rough, Steve Jones guitar is occasionally out of tune and Sid's bass playing is not always excellent. But it's still much better than I had expected.

It also seems that in San Francisco, the band found a receptive audience. The show was recorded for local San Jose radio station KSAN and so bootlegs are available if you know where to look. The sound check bootleg is particularly good.

Rock fans who lived through the late '70s and early '80s are generally pretty aware of The Clash --"the only band that matters." Their 1979 double album "London Calling" was a breakthrough album, and 1982's "Combat Rock" was even bigger. (Ok, yes, I had bloated triple album "Sandanista" and it would have been a great double album.)

But few fans know about the disintegration of the band. Drummer Topper Headon got sacked when the band was at their peak touring with The Who, and guitarist co-founder Mick Jones was sacked after playing the 1983 US Festival for "rock star tendencies." And then Joe Strummer and returning manager Bernie Rhodes released the ill-conceived, ill-fated, ill-inducing "Cut the Crap" album, which even Joe Strummer disavowed.

I managed to see the clash twice, in 1979 and 1982 and they were truly a game changing band. They could have been as big as U2 or The Rolling Stones if they'd managed to hold it together. But releasing the equivalent of 9 albums in 5 years and non-stop touring took its toll and things melted down pretty fast.

If you want to understand all the ins and outs of the final days of The Clash, Danny Garcia's overlooked documentary "The Rise and Fall Of The Clash" is worth checking out. To be clear, it is mostly about the fall of The Clash; how personalities and poor management ruined a great band.

There are candid interviews with Mick Jones as well as the "new" members of the Clash Mk II that you've probably never heard of: drummer Pete Howard and guitarists Vince White and Nick Sheppard.

It's a heart-breaking story and it leaves you wondering: if only things had turned out a bit different.

My buddy Rob and I are almost finished with our epic '70s homage rock opera Underground Radio. It's been nearly two years in the making. It includes 20 original songs, 4 vocalists, a slew of vintage amp simulations, guitar effects, hammond b3 organ, handclaps, cowbells, backwards guitars and more.

We even got a 30 piece symphony orchestra! And it's the first rock opera to include sound effects from Mars, courtesy of NASA and the US taxpayers at a cost of $18 billion. NASA also does some other cool things besides supporting rock operas. As far as we know, this is also the first rock opera to be recorded entirely in GarageBand.

Underground Radio is inspired by music of The Pretty Things, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Clash, The Jam, The Stranglers, Television, Pink Floyd and others. It's set in a dystopian future under an evil surveillance government, 50 years of winter, rock music is illegal. But these two guys try to jam the government's systems with rock and roll, yada yada yada.

All of the songs will be published under a Creative Commons license so they can be used royalty free by anyone in their own creative projects, like films, games, you name it. If anyone wants to re-mix the songs, we're happy to share the GarageBand or LogicPro files.

The project is now fully funded on Kickstarter but if we can raise more money towards defraying the mixing and mastering costs, that is appreciated. We're looking for input about what else we should provide backers in return for hitting our "stretch goals". For example, we could provide more bonus instrumental tracks, chord charts to the songs, higher quality loss-less audio files, a digital tour booklet, tour poster, album covers etc. Let us know your input in comments or on the kickstarter page.

I managed to catch legendary '70s UK rock band Wishbone Ash at Callahan's, a small cub outside Detroit. While Wishbone Ash never had the radio airplay of UK bands like Led Zeppelin or Mott the Hoople, they were every bit as influential. The band was formed in 1969 and put out some of the most rocking, forward looking albums ever. The created a unique meld of English folk, UK blues, and proto-prog rock. But most especially they were famous for inventing the twin lead guitar sound, influencing such bands as Thin Lizzie, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Def Leppard to name a few.

This was one of the best live gigs I've ever seen. This is a phenomenally tight band, owing to the fact that the current lineup has been recording and touring together for about 10 years under the leadership of founding guitar player and vocalist Andy Powell.

The set included many of their classic songs from their most famous album "Argus" from 1972 as well as other songs from the '80s and from their most recent album, 2014's "Blue Horizon." And unlike a lot of long-running bands the newest material worked great and was just as strong as the classics. Powell's vocals, as well as the harmonies from bass player Bob Skeat and guitarist Muddy Manninem were superb. Given the small venue, it was a rare opportunity to see a legendary band up close. I was particularly taken with the impressive bass work on what looked like a very heavy duty six-string bass.

Here's some video from the gig, including my favorite song "Time Was." (Yes, I was the guy shouting for them to play it and I'm glad I did since it wasn't on the set list.) I have a few more videos that I'll try to add in the coming days.

If you're not familiar with Wishbone Ash, I encourage you to check out their compilation album "Time Was Collection" or the latest release "Blue Horizon." And by all means, go out of your way to see them live!

While this was my first visit to Callahan's, it won't be my last. It's a great venue and looks to have a steady lineup of national touring blues and rock bands.